Absolute Power

Absolute Power 5: Crusade Part 2 By Joan Banks

(Debby's voice) "News reports throughout that day were sketchy. There were some vague announcements about vandalism in the children's ward of every hospital, seals broken, charts scattered. No one even guessed that the children were now completely healed and that it was Sarah that they should thank."

"Bull was captured. Disguised as Sarah he had walked willingly into the hands of the madman, Casper Collins. Casper didn't come through on his part of the arrangement, probably so he could have some kind of bargaining chip against Sarah. If Sarah would have walked into that trap instead of Bull, who knows how many would have died."

"Casper has to realize that he doesn't have what he thought. He doesn't have Sarah. And that means that Bull only has a short time to live."

A spiked ball shot out of the wall at alarming speed. Bull didn't even see it coming. It glanced the side of his face and left a nasty gash. Bull screamed.

"What was that for?" He snapped in an alto voice.

"Heh. Just a test my dear." Casper's voice was weaker now, "In case you aren't who you claim."

The cut closed up and the skin healed perfectly. The accelerated healing that the real Sarah had given to him was still working. She didn't think it would last long, probably only a couple hours. Bull didn't know if he would live that long.

"As I thought." Casper rasped, "Once again, my dear. Are you willing to use your powers to save an old man?"

Bull replied with silence.

"She is being stubborn. Keep her alive for the operation; she may have a change of heart. But as soon as it is through, suck all the air out of her room." The tech nodded his assent to the old man who lay on the hospital bed.

"Doctor is my donor ready yet?" he spoke to an intercom.

"These things take time, sir. The chemicals that suppress tissue rejection are tricky. Another hour." This time it was the Doctor who severed the link.

"Insolent man." Casper said, "Remind me to have him killed once this is over."

"Uh, yes sir."

"Have you found Stanley yet?"

"No sir. We tried his house, office, and his cell phone. No one knows where he is."

"Very well. Send them in. I'll deal with it."

The tech keyed a microphone.

"Mr. Collins will see you now."

A moment later a door opened. In walked a woman and a small girl. Molly, Stan's wife, held the hand of the little girl they had been watching. Molly looked as if she had been crying. The little girl simply stared at the monitor.

The woman in the monitor looked like she could have been her mother. The girls' eyes burned with a cold fury.

Stan found it hard to meet anyone's gaze. The people in the small apartment: Debby, Kirsten, and the old man didn't really want to talk to him, either. He had done terrible things and, right now, they had no reason to trust him. The room had been silent for five minutes.

"Where is she now?" Kirsten asked, breaking the silence.

"Somewhere between City and Eastmore." Debby replied, sounding a little worried.

"Should we call again?"

"She has to slow down to answer us." Debby sighed. "We'd better not."

The room was quiet again. Still, no one met Stan's' gaze.

"Can't we at least watch the news?" he finally asked. Everyone in the room stared at each other. With a shrug they conceded. The old man hit the remote.

"....more incidents of vandalism at nearly every hospital in the city. Quarantine seals have been broken at fifteen hospitals within the last three hours. Thankfully, none of the children, all of whom are sick with the 'Whisperer Flu' have been harmed. Seals are being replaced and decontamination procedures are being implemented."

"Children haven't been harmed?" Debby yelled at the TV. "They're cured! Get a clue!"

"Shhh." Kirsten hushed her. The newswoman continued.

"Immediately before the vandalism, this woman..." A picture of Sarah/Bull getting into the transport filled the screen "is reported to be one of the Whisperers. She is currently being held for interrogation. No word has been given on her status."

"At least they couldn't see her face." Kirsten offered apologetically.

"I'm sorry." Stan said to the group "I had no idea he would go this far. I just wish I knew where that transport was going!" he slammed his fist on the coffee table in frustration.

"All in time." The little old man chuckled.

Debby raced through hospital after hospital. Except for the crazy old man, no one tried to stop her. There was something about him that troubled her. He wanted a third eye. That was crazy! The strange thing is that she was unable to give it to him. Unable! There was only one other thing that she couldn't do and that was change back into a man. Strange.

When the wards were crowded she had to slow enough to get around people. That was the most dangerous time. Pushing people out of the way at this velocity would break bones or worse. She didn't want to cause any more trouble.

So many events left her mind a little frazzled. After she thought she had been to the last hospital, she phoned Kirsten.

"I've been to County, Eastmore and Eastside." She said.

"Eastside again?" Kirsten checked the names off the list.

"It thought it looked familiar!" Sarah smiled "Did I miss any?"

"No." Kirsten said. "You'd better come on in."

"Dispose of that." Casper said, smiling a sick smile. The coughing had subsided for the moment, but it would return. Two burly men in scrubs picked up Mary, bloody and unmoving and hauled her away.

The little girl just stared.

"Don't be frightened, dear." He said, "I won't do that to you." He tried to smile a friendly smile. He failed.

For the first time in everyone's recollection, the little girl laughed. There was real humor in her eyes as well as malice.

"I know you won't ...Father."

"I just don't know how you're going to find him!" Stan said, "And how can you all be so calm! Casper has hundreds of facilities in this area alone. We're talking needle in a haystack!"

"Have a little faith, Stan." Debby said, peeling off her shoes. They were once solidly built running shoes, now they were shreds of leather and rubber. Debby threw them away and handed her another pair. Since the cure had apparently worked, Stan was on a reprieve. Tentatively he was part of the group.

Mr. Z picked up Kirsten's cell phone and dialed a number. The phone on the other end rang. When it picked up he hit a four-digit code into the keypad. He hung up the phone and handed it back to Kirsten.

He handed small devices to Debby, Kirsten, and Sarah.

"Go in opposite directions. When you get a reading, call it to me."

Without a word, each of them stood and left. Leaving Stan in the living room with a crazy old man.

"Robert?" He seemed a little less an evil old man and a little more fragile old man "I was so distraught!"

"Can it father!" the strictness was odd coming from the young body "If I were your precious Montgomery you really would be upset. I was always the throw away." She snorted "Non-viable tissue match. Isn't that what the tests said? Dodged that bullet, didn't I? Bad luck for Monty, though. Send in the clones!"

The tech was staring. The little girl turned on him.

"Leave us!" she snapped. Flustered, he did as he was told.

"Always the voice of command." The old man laughed, "Quite a situation you've got into, eh little girl? Tell me what happened."

"You saw most of it on your monitors. She..." She jerked her head towards the live feed of Bull "...changed me into an exact duplicate of her. After that I had to piece together what happened next. I didn't know what I was doing. The whole time when I ran into the road yelling 'rejuvenate, rejuvenate' is completely blank to me. The first thing I remember was being a little girl in the middle of the road. No memories at all."

"But now..."

"I think her program backfired. When she made me into this." She gestured at her pink clad body "She did so with a rejuvenate command. She cured me of the amnesia she had just given me. It was either that or this resilient body she gave me. Amnesia isn't always a permanent condition. It was only a matter of days until I had all my faculties back."

"Why didn't you..."

"Fess up? Come now. I was living high on the hog, every need was mine to receive. You made sure of that, didn't you?"

"Can you... Do you... have the power?"

"Would I still be in this little frock if I had those abilities? No, father, and I've tried. You're dealing with real power here. I would even doubt if that," she gestured to the monitor again "is even the one you're after. Probably a decoy." She started to rout around in the cupboards.

"Got anything to drink, Dad? I could really use a drink."

"So what are we doing?" Stan asked the old man, who had taken a seat at the computer. A map of the city was on the screen.

"Direction of arrival is very tricky within a city." He said, "Signals bounce off buildings, off the atmosphere and really get muddled. I'll take a coke." The old man stared at him until he went into the kitchen to grab the sodas.

"Anyway, what we're doing is getting multiple samplings of signal strength and direction of arrival. The transponder that Bull put on the transport has been keyed to go off at non-standard intervals. The women will call the readings back to us and we should be able to determine the source. The first pulse will be in two minutes."

Shortly thereafter, the phone started ringing. Sarah on was foot and Kirsten and Debby were in their cars. Each read off the results.

"It's in the Northwest portion of town." Stan dialed each phone back and the women started aiming in the proper direction.

Five minutes later, they each called back again. The search area was narrowed to a mile.

"Bring up the map for that area." Stan told the man to zoom in.

"There is only one building that Casper owns in that area. Here!" He stabbed his finger at the screen.

"Don't touch the screen!" the old man hissed.

"Why? Will it short circuit? Blow up?"

"No." Annoyed, he wiped at the screen with his sleeve "Fingerprints."

"Don't just stand there!" The old man snapped, still wiping the screen, "Call them!"

Bull was getting real tired of this. At least the old guy was leaving him alone for a while. That face shot still ached, but at least it wasn't bleeding anymore.

I don't wanna die looking like this, he screamed inwardly, at least let me be me! His head jerked up at every click, every hiss. Come on Sarah, he thought, hurry up!

The group assembled quickly near the facility. Sarah, Kirsten, Debby, and Stan looked guilty as any four people gathered around the open trunk of a car would.

"What's he doing here?" Debby asked, indicating Stan.

"I have the codes to get into that building." He said, "At least I will until they realize that I no longer work there."

Stan stayed in his normal work clothes and turned his back as the women dressed in their nurses' garb. They walked to the facility. Stan paused on the way in.

"What?" Debby asked.

"That's my car..." Stan replied, very confused. They went inside.

Stan cleared them past the first guard and signed for visitors badges for each of them. The facility looked like any hospital, except for the lack of people. As a group they saw maybe four people, where in a normal hospital there would have been hundreds.

"Why a hospital?" Kirsten asked. "Shouldn't it be a prison or something?"

"Casper's in bad shape." Stan said, "Doc only gave him a few weeks to live. And that other thing..."

"What's that?" Sarah asked, looking back from the front of the group.

"Montgomery." He said, "You know, the quiet goon who goes everywhere with him? He always called him his 'insurance policy'. Must have been an inside joke. He was an enforcer, sure, but not an insurance policy. My turn, here's a code lock." He indicated the keypad next to the heavy door. Stan began punching in a complex code and then held his hand against a sensor pad. The door hummed and there was the sound of a heavy bolt being thrown back. The door opened.

"This would be some trap." Sarah said, checking the thickness of the door as they passed through. "No way to get through this."

"Designed with you in mind." Stan said, "All our facilities have been designed on the lessons learned from when you... well... rescued Debby." He looked sheepishly embarrassed about the incident. Debby didn't look him in the eye. "What do you have there?"

Kirsten was picking up a small pink garment off the floor. "Looks like a child's jacket."

"Can I see it?" Stan held out his hand, Kirsten handed it over. Stan examined the jacket for a quick moment and turned ghostly pale.

"What is it? What's wrong?" Debby asked him. Stan shook his head as if clearing it from a fog.

"Nothing," his voice was choked and hoarse with emotion. "Let's go find your friend."

He kept the jacket, ignoring the stares of the women boring into the back of his head.

The hissing in the cell was quieter now. Bull didn't know if it was because they were slowing down the process or there was just less air in the room to carry sound. He sat on the ground near to where the hissing was coming from. Maybe he could just catch some air as it was going by. Maybe he could hold some air against his mouth with his hands. He wasn't thinking straight any more and he was getting very sleepy.

His ears and sinuses ached with the lowered pressure. His joints ached. His eyes ached. Every cell in his body ached. Bull lay on the floor, trying to keep his energy up, trying to stay awake. Trying, and failing.

Bull lay on the ground of his cold, nearly airless cell, trapped in the damaged form of a beautiful girl, still and breathless.

"Sir, there is some news." The tech burst back into the room to tell Casper. "It's on every channel. The flu is disappearing."

"What?" the old man on the hospital cried in confusion "That's impossible! No one could have the cure. Only a select few knew the vector! There is a traitor among us!"

"Or maybe your precious virus failed, father." The little girl snorted, "We need damage control. I'll handle it. I need your pass code."

"Why should I?" Casper coughed.

"I can release the news reports taking credit for the cure. I can make you a hero, father. Right now the world will see you as an ineffectual old man." The little girl told the old man as if speaking to a small child.

"And giving you the code?"

"I can simulate your orders as long as I have your access! Hurry father, there isn't time"

"Very well, come here so I can whisper it to you." The small child rushed to his side. The old man pinched her neck, hard. She winced.

"Betray me and you will pay, Robert." The old man whispered in a barely audible croak, "Methuselah."

"I'll take care of everything, father." The little girl smiled as she left, "Everything."

All of them were nearly sucked into the cell. The huge vault door opened hydraulically. There was such a rush of wind into the cell when the door was opened that Kirsten and Debby fell off their feet. The air around them fogged instantly and no one could see anyone.

"What's going on?" Kirsten yelled in the rush of wind.

"Pressure differential." Stan yelled, "One of the uses of the cells we were going to use was as a vacuum chamber. It's like a plane depressurizing. Until the air settles you get an instant fog bank. Just wait."

"No time!" Sarah ran into the room. There was an agonizing eternity when no one could see or hear anything.

"Sarah?" Debby yelled.

"I've got him!" she yelled back, "Let's get out of here."

By the time she reached the door, the fog bank was starting to thin. It was a strange sight, Sarah carrying Sarah. The unconscious version didn't look to be in good shape at all.

"He's alive." Debby said checking his pulse. "Hypoxia and broken blood vessels."

Sarah repeated the symptoms, their friend started to stir.

The group made it to the first vault door. From there it would be an easy escape. Sarah set Bull down.

"Brain damage. Bends. Conscious." She said. Bull awoke.

"We need to go, Bull." His eyes were glazed for a moment and then were suddenly clear.

"Let's go." He said. "I've had enough."

"Mr. Collins, the prisoner has escaped."

"Fool! Remind me to kill you later." Casper snapped, "Tell the doctor we are proceeding with plan B. Prepare Montgomery right away."

"Yes sir. Right away."

"And doctor? Get our newest guest ready, plan C."

"Sir?" the doctor looked terrified, he wanted to protest but thought better of it. It was better to be alive "Yes sir, right away." He looked as if he would vomit right after he left the room.

Sarah cleared the way of guards, knocking anyone unconscious that might be in their way. They quickly made it outside.

Debby started leading Bull back to the car. Stan stopped.

"What is it now?" Sarah asked.

"My wife is in there." He said solemnly "I need to go back." He held the small jacket up. "They have to be inside. God knows why."

Sarah thought a minute. Stan had definitely been a bad guy but now they owed Bull's life and the life of nearly every child in the city to him.

"I'll go with you." Sarah finally said.

"Me too." Debby agreed, not wanting her friend to go into the lion's den alone. "Kirsten, you and Bull go back to the apartment. We have to check him out further. I'm sure I didn't diagnose everything. If you suspect something then write it down. We'll take care of it when we get there."

Bull protested. He wanted Sarah to change him back to his own form right now (if she even could). The women ganged up on him. He relented and followed the Kirsten back to the car.

"How do you walk with these things?" He cupped his breasts in his hands in an almost obscene gesture.

"Practice." Kirsten said, distracted. She was close to tears. She didn't look back.

"Casper keeps his command centers on the top floor of whatever building he's in." Stan said, walking past the unconscious bodies "It's really very predictable."

"Let's just do this quick." Debby said, "It feels like a trap."

"It has to be the stupidest thing I've ever done." Sarah agreed, "but we owe it to Stan."

"Thanks." He said "I really don't know if I could do this without you."

"I'll feel much better when we get her and get out." Debby shivered slightly. "Here's the stairs."

"Intruders!" the tech watched the monitor of the stairs. Casper saw the screen and shook his head.

"Stanley, my boy." He said, his voice clear for a moment "You were like a son to me." He looked up and said louder. "Let them approach but continue preparing my clone for transfer. We may not have to go through with this after all."

The hall was empty, eerily so. It appeared to be a hospital wing in almost every detail. There were only two things that broke the illusion: No people and only one set of doors. At the end of the hall a pair of swinging doors were mounted. The customary window was missing but they appeared to be swinging slightly. They looked completely unlatched.

Sarah pushed through the door, followed quickly by Stan and Debby. There was a deafening horn and Casper's voice boomed.

"STOP RIGHT THERE!" They stopped.

"I assume you are the ACTUAL Sarah?" Caspers' voice was now at a more reasonable level. He cut back in quickly "DON'T speak and don't move. I don't expect a response. You are standing in a very special area, Sarah. If you move or say one little thing, even clear your pretty little throat, your little friend Deborah dies."

Sarah froze.

"Wonderful, you do believe me. No doubt you know what I am capable of. In case you have any idea of using that marvelous speed of yours, don't. Just behind your friend is a very high-speed dart gun. The poison in that dart will kill her before she even feels the impact. I believe even you cannot raise the dead? I didn't think so."

Panic engulfed Sarah. She couldn't sacrifice Debby, no matter what.

"Stanley, my boy." Casper changed his tone to a more jovial one. "Wonderful of you to stop by. You've been a naughty one, haven't you? Molly was here earlier with all these horrible stories about you. Threatening children, the very idea!" He laughed for a moment "Oh, you can speak. The silence only affects little Sarah here."

"Where is she?"

"You'll be with her soon, my boy." Casper smiled "I was doing you a favor, really. Let's just say she won't be disloyal to you any longer. To you or anyone else." His grin grew wider "You do remember how much I hate disloyalty, Stan?"

Tears streamed down Stan's face. He knew exactly how Casper dealt with disloyalty.

"I need you to say it." He said in a low, measured voice "What did you do?"

"I," Casper said, "didn't do anything. I had the traitorous wench disposed of, eliminated. Much the same way you will be taken care of soon. But first things first, right? Sarah, I have a few more gadgets to describe to you. You'll love this."

Sarah felt an itch on her face; she didn't dare scratch.

"Move your head, but only your head slowly to the left. Please be careful." Sarah complied. She saw two hospital operating tables. On one, Casper's frail form lay, connected by various wires to monitoring equipment. On the other, a huge man lay motionless but wide-awake. Montgomery. His head had been shaved and he also had several cabled hooked up to the monitoring equipment.

"The wires you are seeing are the typical cables of life sign monitors. The machine they are going into has a dual purpose. If anything should happen to me, the building we are in will self-destruct, killing everyone inside. Likewise, if anything should happen to my clone, a likewise destruction will take place."

"Your clone?" Stan snorted, "You don't even look alike."

"An enhanced clone, to be sure, Stanley. Nevertheless he is a perfect transplant match for my tissues. But why shouldn't I want size and strength to go along with my dizzying intellect?"

"What happens to Montgomery?"

"The donor brain is disposed of, of course. It is essentially useless anyway."

"You'd kill him?"

"No, his body would live. I just dispose of the useless parts."

"You are a monster." Debby yelled at him.

"No, my dear, I am a humanitarian. I have enhanced medical science by decades, even centuries! Would you deprive the world of my genius?"

Stan stood still for a moment, contemplating his next move. His tears had stopped and deep within his soul he made a decision.

"You would kill children to save the world. What kind of humanitarian is that?" Debby asked.

"A living one!" Casper snapped back. "Sarah, you will maintain my good health throughout this entire procedure. I will have my strong, youthful body again. If I begin to fail, you all die. When the doctor re-enters the room, I will release your vocal trigger. Do not fail and I will take good care of you, as I do all my employees. Right Stanley?"

Stan was standing directly next to Debby and could see the dart gun poised to kill Debby. He was filled with rage at the injustice of this man and of the world.

He leapt. Jumping directly into Debby and into the aim of the deadly projectile.

"Now, Sarah!" he screamed as Debby fell to the floor.

"Speed." Sarah said and she rushed to her friend before the chamber could be reloaded. She scooped up Debby and Stan and rushed out the door. She shouted "Immune" over and over. At the door she noticed Casper sitting up from his bed, shocked.

She stared at him for a split second and said one thing that would foil all his plans.

"Rh." She said distinctly. Casper's eyes widened in horror. He stood quickly, too quickly. One of the sensors stuck to his bony chest fell to the ground.

The explosions started, shaking the foundation with each blast. Desperately Casper tried to reattach the lost connection. He reattached the wire. The explosions continued.

Knowing he must reach the console he could reset the self-destruct to a pre-triggered state he lurched. Every wire on his body promptly fell off, ending all possibility of stopping the destruction. Casper Collins turned, not knowing which way to turn.

Montgomery was gone, his table rolled away.

His world was falling apart, all his plans foiled. Casper Collins, humanitarian, scientist, innovator, and inhuman monster collapsed to the floor, clutching his heart.

He swore he could hear a child laughing as he fell.

Sarah returned to the stairs. Looking down all she could see was a creaking mass of concrete and metal. The way down was blocked. Hobson's choice, she went up.

The roof was relatively in one piece. Sarah was surprised to see a helicopter taking off, a stretcher in the back and a small child sitting next to the pilot.

There were no ladders from the roof. Sarah looked at her charges. Debby was fine. Stan was dead. No amount of power would bring him back now. She set him down and said a quick goodbye. At the roof edge Sarah looked down. They were on the 35th floor. The side of the building was nearly smooth, just a miniscule window ledge at each floor.

"Get on my back." She said to Debby. Sarah lowered herself over the edge of the roof.

"Hand size and strength." Her palms and fingers grew to an incredible size. "Hold on." She said to Debby. She dropped her grip on the roof edge.

Debby screamed as they dropped, certain they would die this time.

"So how did you survive that fall?" Kirsten asked. They were in Mr. Z's apartment, gathered around the living room. Debby and Sarah had replaced their torn clothes and Bull sat between them wearing an outfit almost identical to Sarah.

"She slowed our fall by grazing each floor as we went. We never really reached a dangerous speed. I did almost lose my grip a couple times, though." Debby said "But you should have seen her hands when we got down."

"And Casper?" Bull asked.

"He was going a little nuts when we left the room." Sarah said, "He was setting off the self-destruct himself and panicking more and more. I don't think he made it."

"What did you say to him, Sar?" Debby shifted in her seat "I didn't hear."

"I said 'Rh'. I changed his blood type so his little brain transplant couldn't work. I thought that would rattle him enough so we could get away. I had no idea it would be so effective."

"You know, that's great and all but...." Bull stood and gestured with both hands at his body. It was still, most definitely not, his body.

"I told you Bull, I got stuck like this. I may not be able to..."

"Cut the negative crap and give it a shot." He said in his sultry alto.

"Fine. You will be healed of not looking like Bull." Sarah said, trying to be very specific about it.

At first, it looked like nothing happened. Then Bull staggered as his head changed shape dramatically. His skin darkened from its clear pale shade and his hair shortened to its normal crew cut. His chest increased in width, spreading his breasts across a larger area and then they were gone. Bulls' pants appeared to be shortening and he just barely got them off in time before his calves expanded to a point that the circulation would be cut off.

A few moments later, their old friend Bull stood in front of them wearing a very tight T-Shirt and women's panties. He was definitely a man again and his old self.

"I... uh... think I'll go change." The women giggled at his ridiculous appearance. Awkwardly he left the room.

"It worked!" Debby said. "Try it!" Sarah stood.

"I will be healed of not looking like Larry." She said. Nothing happened.

"Damn that Djinn!" Sarah said.

"I take it we're hitting the road?" Debby said.

"Yes, Dammit. We've got to find that Djinn. I have to know." Sarah said, tears of frustration forming. "I have to know."

Epilogue

"Media liaison for Casper Collins has reported that the early treatments did work, just not immediately. GeronTech ended the Whisperer Flu with its generous donation of genetically engineered vaccine." The news cut to an official looking news conference.

"We will not rest," the liaison spoke "until the Whisperer threat is located and eradicated. This deadly invasion will not stand and Mr. Collins is using every resource to that end."

The child turned the television off, chuckling to herself. She hit a switch on the sound system attached to the phone. When she spoke again what the world heard through the speaker was the voice of Casper Collins.

"Governor, we are putting all of our resources on this project. We have extended every courtesy to cooperate with the State and hope you will remember this in the future."

"Yes, Mr. Collins." The speakerphone announced "and I must say that your donation to democracy is very much appreciated."

"More contributions to your cause will follow, Governor, if we remain on the same team."

"I can assure you of that."

"Excellent, good day." She severed the connection and disengaged the voice changer.

"Monty?" she said in the voice of a little girl again. The giant man lumbered into view, his shaven head now showing signs of fine stubble. "This will work just fine, for now. She will pay leaving me like this. More dearly than she could ever know." The child cackled as if insane and the giant man rumbled in a deep grunting laughter.

"This is not over." She said, "Not by a long shot."

End Part 5

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